Memories and Helicopters
by Goddess Isa
Summary: Xander remembers something important from his childhood


TITLE: Memories and Helicopters  
AUTHOR: Goddess Isa  
EMAIL: goddessisa@aol.com  
SUMMARY: Xander remembers something important from his childhood  
SPOILER: Nothing really  
RATING: TV-G  
DISTRIBUTION: knock yourself out. http://planetslaythis.homestead.com as always  
DISCLAIMER: Joss owns the people you know. I own everyone else. That's all.  
AUTHOR'S NOTES: I just LOVE this story. I really, really do.  
  
  
  
  
It was Hanukkah, and they were playing at Willow's house.  
  
Willow and Xander were playing on the floor with the new train set her parents had given her, and the cool race cars they'd given Xander, when Willow got bored. She went to go open that night's gift, and Xander sat in the corner, sulking.  
  
He'd wanted 'em. He'd wanted 'em bad.  
  
C.O.P.S. were the coolest action figure out right now, and Xander Harris had to have them all.  
  
And though he got several action figures as hand-me-downs from his cousins Dave and Mick, none of them were C.O.P.S.  
  
Shrugging, Xander loaded caps into his cap gun and tried to make his G.I. Joe hold the gun. C.O.P.S. came with their own cap guns, and they could hold them and everything. C.O.P.S. were the coolest.  
  
"I'm sorry," Willow knelt beside him, a new Ken and Barbie in her hands.  
  
"What'd you get?" he glanced at her, not really seeing her.  
  
She held up the dolls. "I think Ken just robbed a Toys R Us."  
  
She reached for Xander's cap gun with her doll, and Xander's figure went to battle with Ken. Before Willow could stop him, Xander was running around the room with her doll. The G.I. Joe turned C.O.P. fought hard with Ken, and in the end, Ken lost a leg.  
  
Willow went off to find her mother, and Xander ran home, crying.  
  
  
*****  
  
  
The next day, Sheila Rosenberg took Willow to Toys R Us to get a new Ken doll. But as the red-haired five-year-old walked through the store, she started thinking about Ken. He was pretty unique now, only having one leg.  
  
"Mommy?" Willow asked. "Can I please get Xander something instead?"  
  
"Instead of your Ken doll?" Sheila asked, surprised.  
  
"Yes. There's something I really wanna get 'im."  
  
"Well, you didn't get Xander a Christmas gift yet, so I guess it's okay."  
  
Happily, Willow led her mother down the "boy aisle" as Xander called it, and showed her the C.O.P.S. figure set with the helicopter.  
  
"Oh, Willow, that's a very expensive gift, dear," Sheila said.  
  
"You can keep my allowance dis whole week," Willow said. "And the week after, and the week after! Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease."  
  
Sheila sighed. "All right, Willow. We'll get it for him."  
  
Willow beamed. "Thank you, Mommy, thank you!"  
  
  
*****  
  
  
Willow wrapped the gift set and put a bow left over from her last birthday party on top. She walked proudly over to Xander's with the gift under her arm, anxious to give it to him.  
  
She knocked lightly and waited for him to open the door.  
  
He peeked out and then threw the door back.  
  
"Willow! Hi!"  
  
"Hi, Xander," she stepped inside and handed him the box. "This is for you."  
  
"It's not my birthday," he said, unsure of how to act.  
  
"I know. Open it."  
  
Xander tore into it and beamed.  
  
"Wow! Mainframe! And the Chief! And the copter! Willow, how—"  
  
"Merry Christmas, Xander!" she gave him a hug.  
  
"Merry Christmas, Willow."  
  
  
*****  
  
  
"And that was when I first realized I loved your mother," I finished.  
  
"Ha!" Willow said from the kitchen. "You did not it! It took you another fifteen years to come to your senses."  
  
"Senior year," he reminded her.  
  
"All right, thirteen years," she agreed.  
  
"How'd you propose?" Anne-Delia asked.  
  
"In the middle of a snowstorm," Willow said fondly. She sat on the couch between her husband and their dog, Spike. She picked Angela up off the floor and rested her on her lap. The four year old had been listening intently to my story of how we met, and for the first time since she started talking, hadn't said a word. It was sort of strange.  
  
"Snow?" Giles asked. "In Sunnydale?"  
  
"We were in Chicago," I explained. "Your mom transferred to Northwestern after her first year at Sunnydale and I moved there to be with her. We sort of started dating again, and then it just happened."  
  
"There was two feet of snow on the ground, and I wanted to walk across campus to a lecture anyway," Willow laughed, remembering. "Your father showed up with a sleigh and he pulled me all the way to class. It was the most romantic thing I'd ever seen."  
  
"When she came out of the building, it was snowing again," I continued. "It got caught in her hair, and it looked like glitter, shimmering as she moved. I took her hand in mine, kissed it and asked her to marry me."  
  
"We were married the very next day—Valentine's Day," Willow said. "And from then on, life was perfect. We moved back here after graduation, my parents gave us this house, and we had you guys."  
  
"Will I always remember stuff the way you guys do?" Anne-Delia asked.  
  
"If you want to," I answered.  
  
"What about the bad stuff?" Giles asked. "Like Grandpa Giles dying?"  
  
"Good memories always replace the bad," Willow told him.  
  
"Always?" Anne-Delia asked.  
  
I linked eyes with Willow and smiled. "Always."  



End file.
